Till Proven Guilty
by aprilfool1
Summary: Toby is crying by the dumpster when a new girl in town sees him and offers him some advice. Rated T for minor curse words and some angst. Oneshot Toby & OC.


The girl jogged, pulled along by the dogs in front of her. As she passed by an alley she paused, running into her dogs as they stopped suddenly. The dogs cocked their heads and looked down the alley, growling quietly. The girl took the ear buds out of her ears and cocked her head as well, cautiously walking forward into the alley.

"Dexter, what are you growling at?" she wondered aloud, looking around the dumpster. "Oh! Are you alright?" she continued along the wall of the alleyway slowly, alarmed now at the boy crying before her.

"Fine," replied the boy with a blank face.

She stared at the boy for a moment before saying "Well, mind if I sit too? We could use a break," with a wave towards the dogs.

Silence followed her inquiry and she sat down anyways. The puppies whined by her side, and she smiled hopefully at the boy.

He looked up at her and back down, still not saying anything. After a moment more of silence she said "They wanna say hi."

"Then let them," the boy said, finally answering Jessica.

She let go of the leashes and the dogs bolted over towards the stranger, licking his face.

"I've never seen Cody take to someone so quickly before. He's so shy. Oh!" she added, seeing his confusion. "Cody's that big, black one, the smaller one is Dexter."

"Well at least somebody likes me, huh, buddy?" the boy asked Cody quietly, and Cody replied by licking the boy's face enthusiastically. The girl took off her backpack and started pulling a small bowl and a water bottle out of it. She poured the water into the bowl and set it down between the two of them and the dogs walked over, lapping it up.

"You look familiar," the girl said, leaning back lazily against the wall. "Not sure why though. I don't know anybody here yet." She frowned pensively and studied his face.

"I'm the _murderer _they always show on TV," the boy said, looking up at her as realization dawned on her face. "You can go now if you want- I get it," he continued bitterly.

"I'm good," she replied quietly. After a minute more of silence she continued. "You know, Toby, my family and I don't think you're guilty."

"Why not," he asked skeptically. "My parents are psychologists," she said with an eye roll accompanied by a slight grimace. "They say you don't look guilty."

"And you believe them?" he asked, still as skeptical as before. She quirked her eyebrows and said "Innocent till proven guilty right?"

"You mind telling everyone else that?" he asked with a small smile. She smiled back fully and replied. "I doubt it'd do much good. People tend to like their own opinions best."

Toby frowned once again and said "Yeah." After another minute of silence had fallen between them he continued, saying "Well you know my name but what's yours?" The girl smiled goofily and smacked her forehead. "Oh right! I'm Jessica Little."

"Well it's nice to meet you Jessica," Toby said sincerely with another small smile. "It was nice meeting you too Toby. And now I should be finishing my walk."

Jessica slowly started getting up and paused, grabbing a pen from her backpack and squatting in front of Toby. "This is my phone number," she said with a smile, grabbing his hand and scrawling down some numbers, "Just in case you ever wanna talk to somebody who doesn't think you're nuts."

"Sorry," she added with a frown. "That was kinda mean. I quip sometimes."

He laughs deeply and says "Weren't you supposed to be going?" "Right!" She turns and starts walking. "I'm serious about calling if you need a friend to talk to. Don't be shy." She said over her shoulder with another smile thrown his way.

As she walked away he looked down at his hand, smiling happily for the first time in a very long time. She rounded the corner, running directly into a girl her age. Jessica lost her grip on the leashes and as the girls stumbled away from each other the dogs sprinted off down the street, chasing some far away squirrel that just begging for their attention. "Shit! Guys come back here!" Jessica shouted after them, glancing quickly at the girl beside her as she ran off after the dogs, shouting behind her "Sorry about running into you!"


End file.
